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Online Advertising Vocabulary
Any area of a web page that is viewable without the viewer having to use the vertical scroll bar. Ad space in this area is usually more expensive since it is more likely to be viewed by the visitor.
Ad exchanges are technology platforms for buying and selling online ad impressions, and represent a field beyond ad networks and by advertising trade publications. Ad exchanges can be useful to both buyers (advertisers and agencies) and sellers (online publishers) because of the efficiencies they provide.
Ads are often rotated into ad spaces from a list. This is usually done automatically by software on the Web site or at a central site administered by an ad broker or server facility for a network of Web sites.
Ad serving describes the technology and service that places advertisements on web sites. Ad serving technology companies provide software to web sites and advertisers to serve ads, count them, choose the ads that will make the website or advertiser most money, and monitor progress of different advertising campaigns.
Typically ad server is a piece of software installed on a web server. Ad server's main functions are serving ad tags, banner files, making decision when selecting banners, generating reporting data. The algorithms for selecting banners are very intricate and advanced in today's ad servers. They need to consider a lot of factors such as the current settings defined by users, history of visits and projected banner selections.
An ad space is a space on a Web page that is reserved for ads. An ad space group is a group of spaces within a Web site that share the same characteristics so that an ad purchase can be made for the group of spaces.
An ad view, synonymous with ad impression , is a single ad that appears on a Web page when the page arrives at the viewer's display. Ad views are what most Web sites sell or prefer to sell. A Web page may offer space for a number of ad views. In general, the term impression is more commonly used.
Affiliate marketing is the use by a Web site that sells products of other Web sites, called affiliates , to help market the products. Amazon.com, the book seller, created the first large-scale affiliate program and hundreds of other companies have followed since.
Any marketing effort including email promotions, banners or offline media aimed at consumers on the basis of established buying patterns. For example a book store might send an email advertisement to all customer who had previously bought mystery books with a headline of "New mystery books released this week."
Short for alternative text (Alt Text). Alt text is HTML code that allows an HTML coder to add text to a graphic that is visable to those that have images disabled or those that hover their mouse over a banner advertisement. Often used by advertisers to reinforce a message or call someone to action such as: "Click Here".
A program written in Sun's Java programming language which allows viewing of simple animation on web pages.
The amount of data (text, video, sound, images, animations) that can be moved through an Internet connection. The amount is typically measured in bits per second (bps). A high speed Internet connection such as a cable or DSL modem provides more bandwidth than a 56K dial up modem. Also know as throughput.
The tendency of web visitors to ignore banner ads, even when banners contain information visitors are actively seeking.
Behavioural targeting is a technique used by online publishers and advertisers to increase the effectiveness of their campaigns. Behavioral targeting uses information collected on an individual's web-browsing behavior, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made, to select which advertisements to display to that individual. Practitioners believe this helps them deliver their online advertisements to the users who are most likely to be interested.
This is the idea that, in addition to banner ads, there are other ways to use the Internet to communicate a marketing message. These include sponsoring a Web site or a particular feature on it; advertising in e-mail newsletters; co-branding with another company and its Web site; contest promotion; and, in general, finding new ways to engage and interact with the desired audience. "Beyond the banner" approaches can also include the interstitial and streaming video infomercial . The banner itself can be transformed into a small rich media event.
A text or graphical hyperlink which does not clearly indicate where the hyperlink leads to.
Used in web site traffic analysis. Represents the percentage of initial visitors to a site who "bounce" away to a different site, rather than continue on to other pages within the same site.
The process by which sites or servers serve content or HTML in such a manner as to minimize or prevent browsers or proxies from serving content from their cache. This forces the user or proxy to fetch a fresh copy for each request. Among other reasons, cache busting is used to provide a more accurate count of the number of requests from users.
In Internet advertising, the caching of pages in a cache server or the user's computer means that some ad views won't be known by the ad counting programs and is a source of concern. There are several techniques for telling the browser not to cache particular pages. On the other hand, specifying no caching for all pages may mean that users will find your site to be slower than you would like.
Click fraud is a type of Internet crime that occurs in pay per click online advertising when a person, automated script or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad, for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having actual interest in the target of the ad's link. Click fraud is the subject of some controversy and increasing litigation due to the advertising networks being a key beneficiary of the fraud.
A click stream is a recorded path of the pages a user requested in going through one or more Web sites. Click stream information can help Web site owners understand how visitors are using their site and which pages are getting the most use. It can help advertisers understand how users get to the client's pages, what pages they look at, and how they go about ordering a product.
CTR is a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is obtained by dividing the "number of users who clicked on an ad" on a web page by the "number of times the ad was delivered" (impressions). For example, if a banner ad was delivered 100 times (impressions delivered) and one person clicked on it (clicks recorded), then the resulting CTR would be 1 percent.
Contextual advertising is a form of targeted advertising for advertisements appearing on websites or other media, such as content displayed in mobile browsers. The advertisements themselves are selected and served by automated systems based on the content displayed to the user.
A conversion occurs when a prospective customer takes the marketer's intended action. If the prospect has visited a marketer's web site, the conversion action might be making an online purchase, or submitting a form to request additional information.
The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who take the conversion action.
Conversion Tracking is a form of website traffic analytics that measures the effectiveness of a source directing visitors to a web site and persuading them to take a desired action. The source could be a referrer, a search engine, a search phrase used etc. It could also be a characteristic of the visitor for instance the country, age, income etc. The desired action could be the completion of an order page, the sign-up of a newsletter etc.
A cookie is a file on a Web user's hard drive (it's kept in one of the subdirectories under the browser file directory) that is used by Web sites to record data about the user. Some ad rotation software uses cookies to see which ad the user has just seen so that a different ad will be rotated into the next page view.
Cost-per-action is what an advertiser pays for each visitor that takes some specifically defined action in response to an ad beyond simply clicking on it. For example, a visitor might visit an advertiser's site and request to be subscribe to their newsletter.
This is a more specific form of cost-per-action in which a visitor provides enough information at the advertiser's site (or in interaction with a rich media ad) to be used as a sales lead. Note that you can estimate cost-per-lead regardless of how you pay for the ad (in other words, buying on a pay-per-lead basis is not required to calculate the cost-per-lead).
Sites that sell products directly from their Web site or can otherwise determine sales generated as the result of an advertising sales lead can calculate the cost-per-sale of Web advertising.
CPM is "cost per thousand" ad impressions, an industry standard measure for selling ads on Web sites. This measure is taken from print advertising. The "M" has nothing to do with "mega" or million. It's taken from the Roman numeral for "thousand.
CPTM is "cost per thousand targeted" ad impressions, apparently implying that the audience you're selling is targeted to particular demographics.
Ad agencies and buyers often refer to ad banners and other forms of created advertising as ""the creative." Since the creative requires creative inspiration and skill that may come from a third party, it often doesn't arrive until late in the preparation for a new campaign launch.
Creative sequencing is a term in advertising that means predefining a particular sequence(sequencing) of a series of creatives(creative), usually under the same creative concept, that a unique visitor will watch when the visitor visits multiple web pages. The particular sequence is applied to all websites that serve ads from the same ad network. Creative sequencing is a feature within ad serving that allows to predefine the sequence of creatives a unique visitor will watch.
Dynamic Skin Branding technology allows the video player skin to change dynamically according to the targeting criteria specified by the advertiser. With this launch, advertisers can now target online video consumers with contextual, interactive advertising for every second of video watched.
Effective cost per mille (eCPM) is used to measure the effectiveness of a publisher's inventory being sold (by the publisher) via a CPA, CPC, or CPT basis. In other words, the eCPM tells the publisher what they would have received if they sold the advertising inventory on a CPM basis (instead of a CPA, CPC, or CPT basis).
Abbreviation for earnings per click. Calculated by deviding the total earnings from click throughs by the number of clicks.
Abbreviation for earnings per visitor. Calculated by deviding the total earnings from visitors by the number of visitors.
Free-for-all links list, where there are no qualifications for adding a link.
Flat Rate Ad Placement represents the oldest and most basic online advertising methodology. Under this model you rent advertising space at a fixed rate for a specified period of time. this method is most similar to traditional billboard or classified ads.
Frequency capping is a term in advertising that means restricting (capping) the amount of times (frequency) a specific visitor to a website is shown a particular advertisement. This restriction is applied to all websites that serve ads from the same advertising network. Frequency capping is a feature within ad serving that allows to limit the maximum number of impressions/views a visitor can see a specific ad within a period of time. For e.g.: 3 views/visitor/24-hours means after viewing this ad 3 times, any visitor will not see it again for 24 hours. This feature uses cookies to remember the impression count.
A hit is the sending of a single file whether an HTML file, an image, an audio file, or other file type. Since a single Web page request can bring with it a number of individual files, the number of hits from a site is a not a good indication of its actual use (number of visitors). It does have meaning for the Web site space provider, however, as an indicator of traffic flow.
A type of banner advertisement that a web site publisher runs in an ad space when no paying advertisement is available to fill the space. Typically filled with an advertisement promoting one of the web sites services, products or features.
A combination of two or more online marketing payment models.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (or IAB) is an advertising business organization that develops industry standards, conducts research, and provides legal support for the online advertising industry. The organization represents a large number of the most prominent media outlets in the United States. t has developed a number of interface formats for digital advertising metadata.
In Web advertising, the term impression is sometimes used as a synonym for view , as in ad view . Online publishers offer and their customers buy advertising measured in terms of ad views or impressions. Since a single Web page can contain multiple ads (depending on its design), a site usually registers more ad views per unit of time than Web pages per unit of time.
An advertisement that loads between two content pages.
In-Text Advertising is a form of contextual advertising in which ads are served directly into the textual content of a website. In-text ads vary in their presentation and can be represented by different graphics, such as different colored links, or windows that pop-up when a user mouses over the highlighted text.
Inventory is the total number of ad views or impressions that a Web site has to sell over a given period of time (usually, inventory is figured by the month).
A type of computer file on a web server that keeps records of a servers activitysome of the data recorded include page requests and errors.
Information offered to potential advertisers by publishers to help advertisers understand the publihsers rates, visitor demographics, terms, etc.
Monthly impressions (MI) is a term used to describe the number of impressions in one month.
A linear video spot that appears in the middle of the online video content. It is often 15 or 30 seconds long.
The way or ways in which money is generated from a process, resource or service.
The use of browser tricks in an effort to keep a visitor captive at a site, often by disabling the "Back" button or generated repeated pop-up windows.
Monthly rental rate (MRR) is the rate at which a given number of impressions over the period of a month are sold at.
The phenomenon whereby a service becomes more valuable as more people use it, thereby encouraging ever-increasing numbers of adopters.
Used in research, but applied to online advertising specifically it refers to ad space sold directly by the primary owner of the ad space versus remnant display which is sold through third party.
A process where by a user voluntarily agrees to start receiving email, usually commercial, about a topic of interest.
A process where by a user voluntarily agrees to stop receiving email, usually commercial, about a topic of interest.
Overlay advertising is a technique used by online video producers to monetize video content through using an overlay layer to deliver and display an ad unit. This can be in the form of a video advertisement, hypervideo a product placement or a contextual link, clickable graphic or text that provides information related to the content of the video and/or the target of the link being placed.
In pay-per-click advertising, the advertiser pays a certain amount for each clickthrough to the advertiser's Web site. The amount paid per clickthrough is arranged at the time of the insertion order and varies considerably. Higher pay-per-click rates recognize that there may be some "no-click" branding value as well as clickthrough value provided.
In pay-per-lead advertising, the advertiser pays for each sales lead generated. For example, an advertiser might pay for every visitor that clicked on a site and then filled out a form.
Pay-per-sale is not customarily used for ad buys. It is, however, the customary way to pay Web sites that participate in affiliate programs , such as those of Amazon.com and Beyond.com.
Since this is the prevalent type of ad buying arrangement at larger Web sites, this term tends to be used only when comparing this most prevalent method with pay-per-click and other methods.
The type of computer or operating system (OS) on which a software application is designed to operate on. Two computer platforms include PC & Macintosh while two software platforms include Windows & Unix.
Expandable, rich media ad units specifically created for the Apple iPhone. The PointRoll iPhone solution is a great opportunity to showcase innovation by extending user-initiated rich media advertising to a new environment. PointRoll fine tuned their advertising technologies to enable agencies and marketers to create personalized and original interactive campaigns on web pages viewed on the iPhone, wihtout requiring apps.
A type of advertisement that is automatically displayed in a second smaller browser window behind the current window apon loading or unloading a normal web page. Pop behind advertisements tend to cost advertisers more since their visibility is higher but are considered less annoying than pop ups by web site visitors.
A type of advertisement that is automatically displayed in a second smaller browser window apon loading or unloading a normal web page. Pop ups advertisements tend to cost advertisers more since their visibility is higher but are often considered annoying by web site visitors since they are considered obtrusive.
A linear video spot that appears after the video content completes.
Online video ads that you have to sit through before you can watch what you really want to see
The persistent ad format is a thin banner ad occupying the bottom or top of the screen, no matter where the user goes on the page. Hovering on the banner expands it into a full-screen ad with video and other graphical elements. A research suggests the basic principles of TV work online: show an ad to someone long enough and it will likely sink in.
This is the web site operator, also referred to as an Affiliate or Partner. A publisher displays ads, text links, or product links on its web site, in e-mail campaigns, or in search listings and is paid a commission by the respective advertiser when the ad is displayed, clicked on, or the user takes a specific action such as filling out a form, making a purchase or subscribing to a service.
Ad sales partner specializing primarily in single-site sales.
Behavioral retargeting (also known as behavioral search retargeting, or simply, retargeting) is a form of online targeted advertising by which online advertising is delivered to consumers based on previous Internet actions that did not in the past result in a conversion[1] Various Internet Marketing companies have added retargeting to their list of methods of purchasing advertising.[2]
A request for proposal (RFP) is a term that may be used by an advertiser that is requesting some type of advertising arrangement with a web site.
A request for quotation (RFQ) is a term that may be used by an advertiser that is requesting a price for placing advertisements on a publishers web site.
Rich media is advertising that contains perceptual or interactive elements more elaborate than the usual banner ad. Today, the term is often used for banner ads with popup menus that let the visitor select a particular page to link to on the advertiser's site. Rich media ads are generally more challenging to create and to serve. Some early studies have shown that rich media ads tend to be more effective than ordinary animated banner ads.
Run of category (ROC) means a banner will appear anywhere within a category on a web site or ad network. More targeted than a run of site (ROS) campaign where the banner would appear randomly on any page of the site.
ROI (return on investment) is "the bottom line" on how successful an ad or campaign was in terms of what the returns (generally sales revenue) were for the money expended (invested).
A run-of-network ad is one that is placed to run on all sites within a given network of sites. Ad sales firms handle run-of-network insertion orders in such a way as to optimize results for the buyer consistent with higher priority ad commitments.
A run-of-site ad is one that is placed to rotate on all nonfeatured ad spaces on a site. CPM rates for run-of-site ads are usually less than for rates for specially-placed ads or sponsorships.
Advertising that can be purchased without the assistance of a sales representative.
Search engine marketing (SEM) is the practice of promoting a web site through a search engine.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of promoting a web site through a search engine's organic listings.
A type of ad unit that is much taller than it is wide. Often used in columns of web pages where there is allot of unused vertical space but limited horizontal space.
Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. One of the definition of Social Meda is "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content"
Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighborhood subdivision, if you will. Although social networking is possible in person, especially in the workplace, universities, and high schools, it is most popular online. This is because unlike most high schools, colleges, or workplaces, the internet is filled with millions of individuals who are looking to meet other people, to gather and share first-hand information and experiences about any number of topics. . . from golfing, gardening, developing friendships and professional alliances. When it comes to online social networking, websites are commonly used. These websites are known as social sites. Social networking websites function like an online community of internet users. Depending on the website in question, many of these online community members share common interests in hobbies, religion, or politics.
Also known as a "jump page", a splash page is special entrance page to a site. Advertisers often use it to direct people who click on a particular banner to more information about what the banner was regarding rather then sending them directly to the sites homepage. This can be useful for banners advertising free registrations, contests, coupons or other special offers the advertiser does not want to put on the sites main page. Can also help track click throughs.
The testing process of sending the same advertisment to two or more groups with different headlines or copy to determine effectiveness of each.
Advertising that seeks to establish a deeper association and integration between an advertiser and a publisher, often involving coordinated beyond-the-banner placements.
A server side include is a line of code in an HTML document that gets processed by the server each time the page is loaded. Used to output dynamic content on a web page such as from a rotating banner script.
The amount of time spent at a site over a given time period.
Advertising sequence in which a visitor receives ads from one advertiser throughout an entire site visit.
A slogan or phrase that conveys the most important product attribute or benefit that the advertiser wishes to convey. Generally, a theme to a campaign and appears in a banner. May also appear as clickable text beneath a banner and when clicked on redirects the browser to the same page as the visitor would have gone to if they had clicked on the banner.
Targeting is purchasing ad space on Web sites that match audience and campaign objective requirements.
Top level domain (TLD) is the domain name extension that follows a domain name.
A banner ad that attempts to trick people into clicking, often by imitating an operating system message.
Type-in traffic is a term describing visitors landing at a web site by entering a keyword or phrase (with no spaces or a hyphen in place of a space) in the web browser's address bar (and adding .com or in a mobile browser address bar and adding .mobi or any other gTLD (generic top-level domain) or ccTLD extension (country code top-level domain); rather than following a hyperlink from another web page, using a browser bookmark, or a search-box search. Type-in traffic is a form of direct navigation.
Delivery of less impressions, visitors, or conversions than contracted for a specified period of time.
A unique visitor is someone with a unique address who is entering a Web site for the first time that day (or some other specified period). Thus, a visitor that returns within the same day is not counted twice. A unique visitors count tells you how many different people there are in your audience during the time period, but not how much they used the site during the period.
A user session is someone with a unique address that enters or reenters a Web site each day (or some other specified period). A user session is sometimes determined by counting only those users that haven't reentered the site within the past 20 minutes or a similar period. User session figures are sometimes used, somewhat incorrectly, to indicate "visits" or "visitors" per day. User sessions are a better indicator of total site activity than "unique visitors" since they indicate frequency of use.
Advertising that propagates itself by web visitors use of a web sites feature or service. For example, most administrators of free web based email accounts attach an advertisement at the end of each message each time a user sends an email.
General term used to describe a quantity of requests for web pages or other downloadable content by web site visitors.
A utility that returns ownership information about second-level domains